Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

For science fair this year I wanted to research how inter-cellular pH affects genetic mutation. [I have a back-up project btw ]

So my problem is that my teacher said that I would not have enough time to conduct this experiment[ which is likely true because the assignment is due on December 12]but I wanted to know if there was any hope for this project.
So the main issue with this is the process of testing inter-cellular pH (pHi). Is there any other way to test pHi besides with a pH sensitive microelctrode? The other issue would be how would I examine the presence of a genetic mutation?

Thank you in advance!

Hi there,

It is a very interesting research question. I found that key approaches that have been used to determine intracellular pH include pH-sensitive microelectrodes, nuclear magnetic resonance, and pH-sensitive fluorescent proteins. This paper may help you: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/204 ... solic%20pH.

For testing genetic mutations, you might have to find out what specific gene you want to test for. You can start from this website, which is a good database for human genes: https://omim.org/

I know that we can use PCR for the amplification of DNA sections and Microarray to test the expression of genes. You can look at other different techniques here: https://labtestsonline.org/genetic-testing-techniques

Hope it helps you.
Elise

Thank you so much!